Linden Lab has been, in the past, likened to a slumbering behemoth that must slowly chug – groaning and leaking oil – into a sort of smoky activity. Come to think of it, I think it was me that made that comparison, a couple of years ago.

“Agile” is an adjective that few users would apply to Linden Lab.

Yet it is not that the Lab isn’t agile. I’ve seen the Lab pull together and act with breathtaking and quite astonishing swiftness at times. The Lab is more like an ultra-fit blind-man positioned under a falling piano. Agile, yet not aware of when and where to make a move.

Here’s one example that a reader sent in. Issue ECC-49, affecting every pants-wearing avatar who is logged in with viewer 2, deterministic and infinitely replicable. Originally the bug was filed in the middle of November.

It garnered 90 votes, 34 watchers and 50 comments before someone at Linden Lab even became aware of the bug … by accident, a little over three months later.

Rhett Linden finally became aware of the bug, only because it was mentioned at a Machinima meeting on the last day of February, and is finally awaiting triage … or so it is to be hoped.

I suppose that’s eclipsed by the sim-crossing glitches, which only came to the attention of the Lab’s server-developers for the first time approximately three years after the first report. There are many dozens of other such incidences, and probably many months-old issues that haven’t yet graced the awareness of any developer.

Whatever internal processes and structure the Lab might have that allows it to focus resources to solve customer problems, all of these are wasted if the issues go completely unnoticed.